twisted

I am really lazy about my hair. I wash it, I brush it, and sometimes I put it in a ponytail. This is what I've done with it for the last 20 years. I often wish there were a way for me to have more of a hair style without requiring any effort or maintenance on my part, and usually, when I ask the hair stylist about this, the "low maintenance" suggestion starts with a hair dryer or a curling iron, and I zone out. The last time I went in, however, she suggested a bun with a bit of a twist that is easier to do when my hair is wet (big bonus, since I never dry it), and really only takes two minutes to do (despite my lack of skills or patience), and it has become my go-to ponytail alternative. Even better, people comment on it all the time, so apparently it looks better than a two-minute, wet haired, lazy hairstyle. All-around win.

less than three

Boyfriend got me this cool <3 ring for my birthday (with a gentle suggestion on my part). It came today! Birthday in September!

fancy meeting you

I skim Facebook once or twice a day now, so a lot slips through the cracks, but I happened to check this afternoon, and a college friend (who rarely posts) happened to post a complaint about Apple maps, and happened to geotag it in Mountain View, so now we're getting dinner in Wednesday before he leaves town again on Thursday. What are the chances?

fifty percent

I'm halfway to my goal of losing ten pounds! I started exercising in mid-July, and started watching my diet this month, and the last couple of weeks, I've finally been seeing real results. This means that I'll have lots of jeans again soon!

doorbell

I totally bought a cheap, wireless doorbell and put the button next to the bed so that I don't have to yell through the door to get Boyfriend's attention when he wakes up before me.

bird plane shuttle

I wasn't planning on watching the space shuttle Endeavour fly over work today, but happened to be in the parking lot a few minutes before it happened, and decided to stay and watch with a few coworkers. I'm glad I did, because it was a surprisingly moving and emotional moment that doesn't come across in photos or videos of the flight. I hope we find new ways for science to reach out and inspire people, or find a way to bring back the manned space program, now that I've seen what it looks like when it's gone.

one two punch

One of my clients recently sent me an email saying how much he missed working with me, which was really nice. It's good to be appreciated and missed. Today, I met a new client, and she mentioned my former client, saying that he had been talking me up as one of his top favorite lawyers to work with. Secondhand compliments are extremely effective, especially when paired with direct ones.

saison

We had dinner at Saison for Boyfriend's birthday. The food and service were excellent, and we got to go meet the chef in the kitchen. I think that my favorite thing, though, was that they played this nostalgic 80s playlist to keep the atmosphere light. They even played Rick Astley. Yes, the fancy restaurant Rickrolled us.

benefits of ocd

Today marks eight weeks since I started doing this gym thing (although two of those weeks were vacation and shouldn't be counted), which is much longer than I usually last (especially without a buddy). Part of the success so far is because I really want to lose a few pounds and not have to buy new clothes, but part of it is that I've found an app that lets me track food and exercise down to a level of detail that has triggered my weird obsession with numbers. As much as I hate exercising and skipping treats, I'm oddly enjoying finding ways to put in smaller food numbers and bigger exercise numbers. I think it's actually working, too... I've got lots of TV loaded onto my tablet, and I've ordered a couple more pieces of gym clothes, so I don't have to constantly do laundry, so I'm hoping to hit my goal by the end of the year.

painted lady

Legal picnic today, and I took advantage of booth the face painting booth and the henna booth.

kindness of strangers

Never underestimate the power of a random compliment from a stranger. In this case, it was the checkout girl from the pet supply store, commenting that my skin was "glowing." I stammered out that I had just been sweating at the gym, but have been rejoicing in it ever since then. I may be another year older, but so far, so good.

dreamy

I had a dream last night in which Boyfriend was inexplicably wearing a hydrangea print romper to a party at Walmart. I wish I could record my dreams, because he looked pretty hilarious.

ice ice baby

I've wanted to go to Iceland since I first started listening to Bjork in high school (and to a series of Icelandic bands ever since), so it was exciting to finally go. It was a wonderful, alien, fascinating place. Amazing graffiti, late sunsets, random live music, great music shops, geysers, geothermal baths, lava fields, waterfalls, tectonic plates pulling apart. I can't even describe what it was that made it so awesome, but it was really awesome.

visitor

Now that we've moved offices and I sit one building over from my clients, I seem to have fewer impromptu meetings and huddles, which means that for the first time in ages, I'm going to spend the whole day sitting in the Legal building. It's good to be back.

still at it

I've shocked myself by continuing with this fitness kick. Other than when we were on vacation, I've been going to the gym 2-3 times a week, and this week, I've even started making a conscious effort to eat more healthily. This is the longest I've managed to stay on the workout wagon since 2006 (which isn't saying that much, since I only go every few years, for 5-10 visits each time). Watching terrible TV while at the gym helps. I am determined to get back to my normal weight, and it seems like my determination and my effort level are matching, this time.

pipers piping

It was amazing to see hundreds of pipers competing in Glasgow, of all ages and many levels. I think it inspired us to practice more, and I think seeing and hearing the music actually made me understand it a bit more, which has in turn made practicing a bit easier. I bought Boyfriend a set of electric bagpipes for his upcoming birthday, so that he can practice with headphones when I'm home.

fringe

We saw something like sixteen performances while we were in Edinburgh, most of which were good, and some of which were excellent. It was really cool seeing such a variety of shows, sometimes up to four in one day. When they were great, it was great, and when they weren't, we weren't so disappointed, because we had plans to go to a lot more. I feel like in normal life, I go see performances so infrequently that it's a big production to go, and so I have much higher expectations, more potential for disappointment, and less room for whimsy. Loved it.

office space

Apparently, working in an open plan office, elbow to elbow with your neighbors, changes your expectations a lot. I just moved offices, and the three-person office I'm in now seems ridiculously spacious and eerily quiet.

catching up

June was killing my reading productivity (but totally worth it for I/O). I didn't read as much as I thought I would for most of our vacation, because we were so busy doing things, but I started regaining ground the last day or two, and have been making up for lost time since getting back. Currently reading books 98, 99, and 100, and hoping to be back on track for 150 by next week.

encounters

You wouldn't think a trip to Scotland and Iceland would be a trip for meeting up with friends, but we got to see a couple friends from Switzerland (and their baby) right before leaving San Francisco for our trip, two friends in Edinburgh (one in from London and one in from New York), and then met up with a friend and her husband for dinner in the Denver airport on the way home.

queue

I have something of a fascination with respect to music from Iceland, so it was really cool when Boyfriend said he had researched some music shops in Reykjavik. We spent a couple hours at one, listening to a bunch of CDs (they let you open and listen to anything they have). I bought some and made note of a bunch of others to look into later. Then on the fight from Reykjavik to Denver, I realized that Icelandair has tons of music you can pick from, so I even found some more music on the flight. Leave it to Iceland's airline to have surprisingly awesome music on board.

overload

So many frabjous things happened over the last few weeks (many relating to our two week vacation to Scotland and Iceland), that I kind of froze up and was too overwhelmed to pick particular things to post about. That's a pretty great reason not to post, but I will think about it and start posting some in retrospect, now that the frabjousness is less overwhelming.

bargain

I went to buy new jeans last weekend because the ones I usually wear were wearing out. I found two pairs that cost 99 dollars each and I couldn't make up my mind. Then I realized that most jeans cost two or three times as much a pair, so I bought both. Bargain.

just in time

The cover for my new (free) Nexus 7 arrived today, just in time for my trip.

t-1

All packed and ready to go, and everything fit into carry-on! Spending the evening catching up with friends in town from Switzerland. Yay, vacation!

crunchie

One of my coworkers from London cane through and brought me Crunchie bars! Haven't had one in years, but I was kind of obsessed with them in college, so this is exciting.

balloons

Stayed with a few of the engineers at the office until 10 last night preparing this birthday surprise for one of our coworkers. It's a network of long, skinny balloons interwoven with round balloons (with glitter confetti inside to discourage popping), all tied to her desk. No helium involved, there are just so many balloons that they stay packed together. Add in some little exploding poppers in her chair, a silly cake during our weekly meeting, and I think her birthday counts as celebrated. Definitely the most fun reason I've had to stay late at work.

thingy

When I went to get lunch yesterday with a couple of coworkers (and the student I interviewed who got into Harvard, and happens to be interning here this summer), we went to a building that has a receptionist, which also meant that I was able to get a replacement badge holder thingy. My last one broke a week ago, and it was driving me crazy.

yesterday

I got to meet an author, get a signed copy of his latest book, and eat lunch with him and some other cool people. The funny thing is that he was probably just as happy, because he got to talk to folks from NY team, and try out Glass and the self-driving car.

perk

Not sure which was the best part of the day: getting a Nexus 7, lobster rolls, sushi, table massage, or spending three hours after work executing an elaborate prank.

hard knock life

This is a tough decision I'm facing at work: go to see The Dark Knight Rises tomorrow at 11 a.m. with the Patents team, or go at 7 p.m. with the Glass team. Or both?

edin-burra

So far, we've booked tickets to three comedy shows in Edinburgh (and flagged half a dozen other events that look interesting), and bought tickets to the World Pipe Band Championships (which also includes the Highland Games) in Glasgow.

Also, we'll get to meet up with two of my friends while we're in Edinburgh.

day three

Today is Day 3 of my attempt to be more active. On Tuesday, I did some cardio at the gym at work. Yesterday morning, I did a quick at-home routine that I found on YouTube, and I'm still sore from that (so either I am completely out of shape, or the exercises were actually pretty tough). I plan on doing more cardio today.

brush with fame

All kinds of people reach out to meet my awesome teammates. I am coordinating a visit from an author, and perhaps one from an actor, as well.

fitter happier?

I bought some workout clothes today. I think I may be committing myself to some active effort to lose the extra pounds, which would be a good thing.

haha

Meeting up with a college friend on our Scotland trip, and catching three comedy shows together!

so sorry

Not legible in this picture, but just spotted on a banner being pulled by a plane: "In case you forgot, I'm still sorry."

something fishy

I forgot that Wednesday is sushi day!

me too

One of the engineers invited me to paintball last week. I got back from vacation today to find one of the more impressive pranks I've seen (coworker turned my desk into a lawn). This week, there's poker night with some of the team, and some other people are getting drinks up in the city. Had lunch today and discussed nerdy cartoons from the 80s. I may not make it to all of the events, but it's good to know that people on the team feel like including me in random things. I think I'm settling in.

trip prep

In somewhat premature preparation for our upcoming trip to Iceland and Scotland, I've started browsing around and downloading Kindle books -- I've picked eleven so far, but since the trip is almost four weeks away, and I only have about six library books lined up for that time period, I'll probably read a few of the books I bought today before we even leave (which will be an excuse to download even more!). I got behind in my reading in the month leading up to I/O, so I'm determined to do some catching up on vacation, and still hope to make it to 150 again this year.

visitor

Had a good friend from my brief law firm days in town for five days, and we packed a lot in:

• soup dumplings (at a place Boyfriend and I hadn't tried before, and were very pleased to find was quite good, since the place we used to go to changed owners)
• Japanese Garden
• Golden Gate Park
• Golden Gate Bridge and Crissy Field (clearest day I've ever seen in the city -- we could see the bridge, the bay, and Sausalito without a cloud in the sky or a trace of fog on the ground)
• The Haight
• The Castro (complete with middle-aged gay nudist men)
• Mexican food (not my favorite, but Boyfriend was pleased to get to go to a Mexican restaurant for once)
• Napa and Sonoma, including seven wine tastings (I was the designated driver, but she enjoyed the wine and bought a bunch -- I was even able to leave a few cards for complimentary tastings for a coworker who was coming up to Sonoma just as we were leaving) and dinner at Cyrus (the waiter was kind enough to send a little something back with me for Boyfriend when he learned that Boyfriend was staying home to watch the dogs); perfect weather all around
• Tour of Google
• Japanese grill
• Brunch
• A short hike at Half Moon Bay

It was good to catch up with her for the first time in a few years, and to really get away from work for the first time since I started working full time with my group.

check out

Why, yes, we are taking a trip soon, how did you know?

ging gong

Calamansi juice at Whole Foods, which takes me back to our idyllic vacation to Palau and Yap two years ago...

pilot program

One of the people I met is a pilot and developer with Swiss, and was surprised when I greeted him in Swiss German. We chatted a bit, and he gave me some chocolate, which brings back memories of my many flights on Swiss. We also exchanged business cards, and I offered to give him a campus tour next time he comes in town, and he offered to try to help me get better seats on flights. Not a bad trade.

booth babes

It was super fun helping with the developer pre-order at the conference. I got to meet lots of excited people and tell them a little bit about Glass, and I don't think I was completely prepared for the level of interest and excitement. I also want completely prepared for the night out with the team afterwards, so my old self is skipping the party tonight to relax at home.

i/o

I/O, I/O, it's off to work/play I go!

oh yeah

I'm staying at my friend's place for a couple nights to be close to I/O. After a couple years of house living, I totally forgot that hot water always comes instantly in an apartment.

Also, check out the view from his place.

godliness

I'm not the best housekeeper ever, but Boyfriend was pretty impressed when he came home today, and I had done laundry and dishes, collected and taken out the trash, compost, and recycling, and started tidying up the house a bit in anticipation of the cleaning lady coming tomorrow. I also put Fiver through his bath-teeth-nails-ears ritual. Not bad for my messy self. Boyfriend claims that this was not the reason for the flowers and steak.

birthday

It's kind of liberating to be able to tell my mom that no, I really, truly don't want or need her to get me anything for my birthday, because I'm doing fine on my own, and that I really would be perfectly happy if she gives the money to her family back in Taiwan, instead.

steak dinner

Boyfriend went to the store to buy steak for dinner, and brought back these.

Also, we're having steak for dinner.

fun money

I just went through my bag of foreign money to sort out my pounds and pence for the upcoming trip (more than five weeks away, but it's fun to start thinking about), and remembered how much fun it is to look at all these souvenirs from past trips. One little bag has money from dozens of countries...

mon-key

Two years after moving into this house, I finally realized that the key fits into these little monkey holders. I had one on my house key when I was living in Zurich, and it was kind of exciting to put one on again.

founder's day

Spent Thursday hanging out with the team at a party hosted by one of the founders. I had a bit of wine, so I decided not to risk wielding knives or working with open flames during the cooking lessons. Second bonus was that a few of us stayed around after most of the people left, chatting and sobering up before driving home. Good times.

summer plans

A bunch of stuff came together over the last few days, and the rest of summer is suddenly looking very inviting:

• I got my pass to go to I/O, which is this week
• My good friend made up her mind and booked her tickets to come spend July 4th here, and so I've started making plans and restaurant reservations
• Two of my favorite people may come through town for about 20 hours in August, which would be awesome, as we haven't seen each other since they had their baby
• Boyfriend and I booked the major flights for a two week trip in August -- we'll check out Fringe in Edinburgh (the main purpose of the trip), but it turns out we'll also catch the annual World Pipe Band Championships, and we'll spend some time in Iceland, as well (something I've been wanting to do for almost 20 years)

Life is so much more exciting when you have fun plans coming up.

wakey wakey

Chicken sausage, egg, and cheese sandwich in bed? Don't mind if I do.

sunday

Forgot to write about Sunday:

1. Scottish coworker had an afternoon party at his place, complete with cucumber sandwiches, Pimm's, scones, and a bouncy house.
2. Then we went out for crabs, but there was a line, so we got bubble tea.
3. Then we had crabs.

welcome wagon

A few of us took one of the conference bikes for a ride yesterday (and Fiver came along), to welcome a new lawyer after his first day of orientation. 

twins

It has been decades since I've cracked open an egg with twin yolks. I'm going to take that as a good omen.

we are young

Had a mini work reunion last night, so we ended up with four lawyers and a law student hanging out after a stressful week all around, a little bit giddy about getting together and blowing off some steam, and ended up blowing off more steam than expected. After champagne, wine, beer, rum, Coke, vodka picklebacks, and liberal doses of Rock Band, YouTube, pizza, and ice cream, we went to sleep as the sun came up. Yes, it was a drunken lawyer sleepover, and it was hilarious fun.

sugar rush

Care package from abroad, sent by friends via the luggage of a coworker. My gummy and chocolate supplies were dwindling to dangerously low levels, so this will tide me over for a while.

to do

These will keep me busy for a while.

good news

I just got to deliver some unexpected work-related good news to Boyfriend! Stay tuned to see how this pans out...

visitor

A very good friend might be coming out here over July 4th, which would be awesome, because it looks like we won't be able to travel to the East coast, as originally planned, due to work conflicts...

lobster again

OK, twist my arm, I'll have more lobster for lunch today, this time in a sunomono salad.

maybe maybe

My biggest work headache, the one that has woken me up at odd hours and find its way into my dreams (which is unusual, as my dreams usually go towards surreal rather than real) may have become a lot less of a headache.

lobster

Lobster rolls for lunch today! I ordered one for later, because I had already made lunch plans to meet up with the one student I've interviewed so far who then got in and matriculated to my alma mater. So I got to catch up with her and eat a lobster roll.

weekend retrospective

• Had people over for a work BBQ, and introduced the willing to donut burgers
• Went to a friend's housewarming party, with several benefits: we were able to use up the rest of our keg and extra cookies and donuts from my work BBQ, had fun food from the food truck she had hired, and caught up with my former manager, who is on leave
• A friend came by yesterday to catch up over burgers; he came all the way down from Oakland to check out Project Glass (and see us... but mostly to check out Project Glass)

one upmanship

I invited my entire group over for a beer and donut burger cookout tomorrow. Lead software engineer had our product team over for a fancier affair tomorrow. Founder having us over at his place soon. I hope no one notices that mine is the least fancy.

trick

It seems that the trick to making people like your presentation is lots of pictures, which works out, because that's the part I like doing best.

two day streak

Another day, another pleasant surprise. Some days I can't believe I get paid to do this, and then it gets even better. This is one of those days.

open season

Engineer coworker left his computer unlocked. I updated a few things, some of which he discovered. Big hat tip for deciding that he liked having "pull my finger" as his chat status at work.

windfall

Unexpected bonus!

demo

Me, do a big demo? It just might happen. I actually did a happy dance at work when the possibility was raised.

win

I got Glass today, after much waiting, and the team awarded me the weekly internal MVP award (hence the cape). Happy day for this geeky lawyer.

reunion

Office mate from last summer is back in town, and he came over for dinner. Fiver was ecstatic, once he figured out who it was.

business

This is how I show up when I join meetings over VC and I'm at my computer (and not in a VC room).

winning streak

Just a day after giving the team what they wanted, I got surprising news today that we can have even more than what we were hoping for, and more than we thought was possible, based on precedent. It's kind of a miraculous combination that I want to savor for a moment before diving into the next tangled maze...

good girl

Got not one, not two, but three email pats on the head from the product manager in the last 24 hours, so I feel like I'm getting some hard-earned legal street cred on this team.

tomorrow

Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love you, tomorrow, you're only a day away. A little over seventeen hours until the moment I've been anticipating for weeks...

tada

Finally gave the team something they've been asking for since Day One. It felt really good to send that email. I felt kind of like Santa Claus, if Santa Claus were a lawyer.

solvation

I think I might have found some unexpectedly workable solutions for what seemed like nearly insurmountable problems at work, and it was like the sky opened up and poured sunbeams of salvation on me. Then I was able to leave work on the early side, thereby extending my long weekend by a few hours.

pile it on

You know what's even better than pranking your coworker by making his wife think he was fired? Changing his chat status, mission statement, and auto-responder right afterwards.

five

Five simultaneous explosions at work, of varying levels of urgency. The most immediate one appears to be resolved, and I've made significant progress on the next few just in the last couple of days. It's going to be a long haul for the next month, I think, but I'm learning a lot. A period of terrifying chaos and long days makes the lull at the end of the tunnel look more beautiful. Keep going towards the light...

twelve

Yesterday, we celebrated Fiver's twelfth birthday. He got to skip his bath, and partake in some normally forbidden human food: cheeseburger with tomato, ham, and mango. He also got some extra dog treats. I think that's a good birthday for a dog.

treasure

The secret to an exciting burger, apparently, is to hide spicy chicken Italian sausage on the inside.

what work

Saw a coworker playing a gig with his band on Friday, and had I known some Flo Rida song, they would have had me do it. Movie and burgers in the backyard with another coworker yesterday. This was pretty much the most awesome weekend in a long time. I did a little bit of work, but it was totally overshadowed by all the play.

eclipse

And at Maker Faire, I got a thing to watch the eclipse, so when I got home I watched it, and it was cool, and I got to share it with a couple of families who passed my way, and the kids' wonder gave me some hope that science and learning aren't dead. Perfect day.

meet your makers

Randomly decided to go with a friend to Maker Faire today, and it was a million kinds of awesome. Great weather, good vibe, and the most fascinating intersection of creativity, whimsy, innovation, cleverness, hacking, tinkering, and joy.

that time

Hooray for jasmine season, the best-smelling season of the year, which also coincides with the best weather of the year!

lazy productivity

Who says you can't get anything done when you're being lazy? I didn't set foot outside my house this weekend, and I still read over 1300 pages, had a quasi-work-related VC, practiced bagpipes, watched about six hours of TV, gave Fiver a bath, did the dishes, called my mom, watched a movie, and caught up with friends in Switzerland.

final countdown

Only days remain until I get my happy little paws on a new gadget to test, if all goes smoothly. Days...

giggles

Uncontrollable giggles today when one of the engineers told me to navigate through a menu and then told me to pick an option and "tap that." Odd sense of satisfaction when he and the other engineers and product managers in the conversation were surprised that a lawyer would laugh at something like that.

navigation

Law on the bleeding edge is tricky territory, so it's satisfying when you get a question that ends up being easily answered, and the answer is exactly what you were hoping to hear.

modeling

One of my colleagues pinged me today to say people really liked my presentation last week, and that they want to use it as a model for the training series they're doing on various legal topics, to show the presenters how to keep their presentations interesting. I think I had an unfair advantage with the content I was presenting, but I was still flattered.

new girl

Fiver and I have a new work neighbor for the week. We played some fetch and tug today, and she totally cracked me up when she went swimming in the fountain.

solo

One good thing about having the house to myself is that I can turn up the music and sing along as loudly as I want.

back on track

Surprisingly, after a slightly slow start, I seem to be on track to hit 150 books again this year, although it's early days yet, and we'll see if it holds. Some real stunners so far, too.

caretaker

It's kind of adorable that whenever he has to travel on business, Boyfriend stocks up on groceries and makes lots of reheatable food for me so that I won't go hungry from a combination of his absence and my laziness.

encore

Two weeks in a row. I must be doing something right.

present

Made it through a presentation to the legal department about Project Glass, and it went pretty smoothly.